The Man with the Withered Hand

What I wanted to write about when I started the last post was the gospel reading from today's Mass: Mark 3:1-6. 

We have in the scene the Pharisees, Jesus, his disciples, the crowd, and in the crowd a man with crippling paralysis in his hand. When the scene starts, we already know that the Pharisees are looking for somewhere to hang their accusations against Jesus. So when the man with the paralyzed hand becomes a character, his problem becomes simply staging for them. So right off the bat, the Pharisees have a dehumanization problem. And this makes Jesus angry. The text says he is grieved at how hard their hearts are. Clearly they don't perceive the Creator in Jesus, but they don't even show him human respect. And the need of the man doesn't register with them, either. In their hardness of heart they are only concerned with their laws and rules, which is where they find their security, and where they want to find their justification for getting rid of Jesus, who seems to already have pushed buttons they didn't know how to handle.

So the Pharisees are not moved with pity for the need of the man, or for him as an individual. Jesus, however, calls on the man to stand up and take a side. He, Jesus, is wanting to restore him to wholeness, and he calls for the man to act in trust -- stretch out your hand. Yep, that thing that has caused you all your trouble, hold it out for everyone to see. The Pharisees want the man to side with them -- healing on the Sabbath breaks the command! It's not supposed to happen this way! Stop with your wanting to be whole. Stifle that, listen to us, and ignore Jesus. 

But the voice of Jesus, Creator God, speaks into the desire in the man. Become who you were made to be -- whole -- even if it upsets religious propriety. 

He stretched out his hand. 

And the hand was restored.

Because he recognized the voice of the Creator/Redeemer/Restorer in this "unauthorized" rabbi.

And the man's act of faith became of the reasons Jesus' death was plotted for. He let it be known that God was here, being God, and that was more than the Pharisees were able to stomach.

One could draw parallels "out there" in the world or in the church, but really one need go no further than one's own heart to find the paralyzed man, the Pharisees, and the call of the Lord to make a decision of faith. Do I want to be whole more than I fear displeasing the voice of condemnation?